Wedding Dresses at H&M for $99 Set Internet Abuzz

March 16, 2014

H&M has recently launched a $99 wedding dress. Images of the dress have taken the internet fashion sites and blogs by a storm.

Back in 2006, the company launched another affordable wedding dress for $349 with its Viktor & Rolf Collection, according to MTV. H&M spokesperson Jennifer Uglialoro had said that the pricing and release “was very strategic”. “Within the first hour, all of our 25 wedding dresses were sold out”, she added, noting that there were only 1,000 dresses total.

This latest affordable dress, set to be mass produced, further reduces the price by over a third. Buzzfeed compared the dress Target’s Tevlio line for a $99 and J.C. Penney’s own $64.99 wedding gown. But H&M has dominated the Twitter discussion:

According to the Daily Mail, a spokesman of the company said “We have been offering party dresses for quite some time and we felt that we wanted to be able to give our customer an opportunity to look great on her wedding day by offering this great and affordable wedding dress in our assortment. Everyone should be able to have a great and affordable wedding dress.”

According to the Association of Bridal Consultants, the average wedding costs $28,082, with the average dress costing $1,600. Veronica Guerrieri, economist for the University of Chicago told NPR she attributes a bride’s willingness to pay to the rising cost: “I think that on average there is a lot of status and signaling going on wedding day.”

It will remain to be seen whether the trend will reduce the cost of weddings or status and signaling will prevail. H&M’s dress is expected to go up for sale online later this month.